The last 10 days of September saw us camping the Oregon coast. We started at Fort Stevens and ended at Harris Beach in Brookings. Short hops and brief explorations. I had forgotten or misplaced the impact of the natural beauty of cliffs, haystack rocks, and wildlife that the coast of Oregon delivers. At Bandon, Oregon we stopped into a farmers market and I found a honey booth. I was talking to the beekeeper and also asked about the darker honey he had. He explained that it was Meadowfoam from the Willamette valley. He said it had a taste like vanilla and marshmallows. I had to buy it. Meadowfoam (Limnanthes alba) is a low-growing herbaceous winter annual that is adapted to poorly drained soils. The common name "meadowfoam" is due to the appearance, at full bloom, of the plant’s solid canopy of creamy white flowers that resembles sea foam on the surf. Meadowfoam grows to a height of 10 to 18 inches. It is an early nectar source and beekeepers remove supers before the blackberry bloom starts to keep the honey undiluted from the milder honey.
Commercial development began in 1980 on an experimental farm in Oregon. The oil from meadowfoam seed has unique chemical properties that make it one of the most stable vegetable oils known. Meadowfoam oil is widely used in cosmetic and hair-care applications due to its stability, lubricity and ability to stay on the skin. Some examples of existing specialty applications include massage lotions, sun block creams and salon-quality hair-care products. The crop is pollinated using commercial beekeepers. They tend to not produce a honey crop as a sideline, so it’s the small beekeepers on the periphery of the fields that sell meadowfoam honey. There doesn’t appear to be a large supply on the market. As for the taste, its quite the surprise. There’s definitely a vanilla flavor and maybe marshmallows. Definitely unique and like nothing you’ve ever tasted, and I liked it, but maybe not on everything.
My hives were mostly packed with honey back in August and I never got around to weighing them. I use a handheld luggage scale to lift the back of the hive, which doesn’t give me the exact amount of honey stores, but I have been doing it for quite a few years and I can interpret the results. I regret not weighing them until today, but now at least I’ll always have today in the records. I expected mostly very heavy hives but that did not happen. The 4 lightest averaged 47 pounds and I like to see 55 in October. The other 7 averaged 67 pounds and are definitely good to go. All 11 are double deep hives. I believe there is still time to feed 2:1 syrup and one 25-pound sack of sugar will make 30 pounds of sugar honey, or 7.5 pounds per hive. That would get the average up to 51 pounds, so I’ll probably need to do a little more. You can use any white sugar/granulated sugar. It doesn’t matter if it’s cane or beet. Avoid organic sugar, brown sugar, confectioners’ sugar, raw sugar, or anything else. Drivert sugar is fine but I don’t think it’s an improvement over every day table sugar for syrup. I don’t feed pollen patties, you can make up your mind on that. Low protein patties would not be a problem though.
I installed entrance reducers 2 weeks ago and I’ll put 1” thick Styrofoam below the outer cover in a couple weeks. All hives have small upper entrances for egress and ventilation. I’ll treat with Oxalic acid vapor in November. Then I’ll just do monthly weighings until spring. It’s great to have a plan but be prepared to adjust. Bill